Mikhail Gorbachev, who died last month at 91, was the last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the world’s first socialist state. To grasp the significance of the moment, Gorby fans might dial back to the original ruler.
That would be Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, a partner in the Marxism-Leninism that formed the basis of Soviet socialism. As F. A. Voigt explained in Unto Caesar, Marxism-Leninism is not science, not a philosophy, and it fails to qualify even as a theory. Marxism-Leninism is a secular religion, a form of “armed idolatry” in power.
Lenin died in 1924 and gave way to Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili, better known as Stalin. He headed the dictatorship of the proletariat, which as Sidney Hook explained in Out of Step, meant dictatorship over the proletariat and dictatorship of the Communist Party. In the world’s first socialist state, that was the only party allowed.
